My journey into the world of international experiences began in a unique way. I was born in China, but in my early life, it took an unexpected turn when I was adopted by a Finnish family. I became part of a family with Finnish parents and two brothers from Russia.

When I was 5 years old my family moved to Namibia for a few years. There I learned about a totally different life. I learned to live in a totally different society and culture. It was rather an important experience for my life. After that experience, I got curious about all those other countries, societies, and cultures, and that curiosity hasn’t stopped even today.

Internationality can also be seen in my academic career. I started my school journey in Namibia and after coming back to Finland I got interested in my own culture and language. I went to an elementary school in Meilahti where Chinese could be studied, I learned there also about Chinese culture. However, nothing lasts forever in this life, not even love, so my parents got divorced and I had to move to Turku where I continued school at Turku International School. After graduating from high school I was pondering to apply for higher education abroad but I got cold feet because I hadn’t even lived alone yet. Now that I have been studying here in the Netherlands, I really want to experience studying abroad somewhere else.

I have traveled quite much in my lifetime. I have visited 23 different countries, some of them multiple times. Traveling has shaped my view of the world and life. In my lifetime I want to visit as many countries as I can.

In 2018 I volunteered in Brussels, Belgium for couple of months. I was there to help families connect with each other. Parents to talk with each other and to get peer support, kids to play with each other. It was a family club, but what connected all the families was that one or both parents were from Finland. It was a unique experience to see how different families had immigrated in different ways.

In conclusion, it can be stated that I have a versatile international experiences that have equipped me with cultural competence, and global perspective.